Anthony M. (Tony)
Shooks, the oldest of the five sons of Tony and Tillie Shooks, was born
on March 29, 1919, at the Sjoeks farm in Central Lake Township, Antrim
County, Michigan. Tony graduated from
Ellsworth High School in 1936 during the Great Depression. He wanted an
education so he could teach and coach athletics. Scraping some funds
together, Tony entered West State Teacher's College which is now
Western Michigan University. To stay in
school, he had to work and was employed by the NYA, a government
program to help students in college. The next year the program was
discontinued and Tony was not able to continue his studies. When he
came home, his mother
cried because he was so thin.

Tony went to work for the East Jordan Meat Company and learned the meat
cutting business. The Shooks Market in Ellsworth always
bought their meat from them, and Tony would bring the orders home at
the end of the day.

In 1941, the government instituted a military draft. Hitler had overrun
most of Europe and had designs on England. Our nation was very
isolationist-minded in light of the events of World War I. President
Roosevelt felt we were not well protected as a nation having a very
small Army and
Navy. Tony was called up in the second draft call and entered the Army
on May 8, 1941, approximately eight months before Pearl Harbor. He was
sent to Camp Beauregard, Louisiana for basic training. Tony said that
he trained with wooden machine gun mockups and other substitutes.

When Tony came home on furlough after basic training, his dad wanted a
family picture of all the children. So, the five remaining sisters came
home. (The sixth, Jeanette, passed away in 1929.) The family photograph (click
link to view) shows Tony in his military uniform.

Tony's unit, the 126th Infantry Regiment at Camp Beauregard,
consisted of many draftees and National Guard members from Western
Michigan. Tony's military record shows that he was trained as a heavy
machine gunner,
a clerk typist and a stenographer. When Pearl Harbor was bombed, part
of
the 126th was sent to the Pacific for a campaign in the New Guinea
jungles. For whatever reason, Tony did not go with them. He left the
United States
on February 19, 1942, with the First American Expeditionary Force and
landed in Ireland.

At some point, Tony had been given
leave and he traveled to
England and Scotland. During this time, he met his wife to be,
Margaret Munro, in Edinburgh, Scotland. They were married before Tony
was sent to
southern England for the planned invasion of Europe.

The invasion departure area was Portsmouth, England, where
General Dwight D. Eisenhower's headquarters were located and where the
invasion was planned. Tony was in the second wave of the invasion on
D-day.
He was with the Headquarter Company of the 1121st Engineers' Combat
group. It is not known what he did in the invasion, but the miracle is,
he survived. Given the defenses the Germans had in Normandy, it must
have been a day that he would never forget. The Americans had to cross
beaches a quarter of a mile deep to get cover.

Tony's unit went to northern France from Normandy. He
crossed into Belgium on September 8, 1944, and entered the German
Rhineland on
September 14. He was in the Ardennes-Alsace and Central Europe area.
One
has to think Tony was in the Battle of the Bulge in this area as the
next location
reported for him is Naarschan, Czechoslovakia near Pilsen in the spring
of
1945. On May 8, 1945, the Germans signed the surrender terms at Reims,
France.

Tony had acquired enough service time (3 years and 4.5
months in Europe and 11.5 months in the US) for discharge. He left
Europe
the 19th of June, 1945 sailing for the US. Tony arrived the 25th of
June
at Camp
Kilmer, New Jersey. He was separated from the service on September 2,
1945, at Fort
Sheridan, Illinois.

Tony's decorations and citations on his discharge papers
show a Good Conduct Medal, an America Defense Service Ribbon, a
European-African-Middle Eastern Theatre ribbon with three bronze battle
stars, a Bronze
Service Arrowhead, Six Overseas Service bars and one Service Stripe. He
suffered
no wounds.

Tony and Margaret, who are both deceased, made their home in
Ellsworth, Michigan. They are survived by their four daughters,
Janice, Judy, Lisa and Pamela.

Thanks to P. John. Shooks,
Tony's brother, and Tony's daughter, Pamela,
who contributed to this story.